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Posts Tagged ‘legal action’

.. having to deal with a radical activist AG in Oregon is bad enough .

.. in a case in an Appeals Circuit [the 9th Circuit] that is the very worst for radical activism in the U.S. is even worse . This circuit was the home base for the pro – so – called gay marriage case Hollingsworth v Perry , right out of California …

.. it is clear from the documentation that the National Organization of Marriage has got the State and the opposing parties dead to rights . They were caught in the act of active and open collusion before , during , and after the court case . Even during the appeallate phase …

.. it is clear that this case should be vacated and reversed . It will be brought again , without doubt . However , the private parties should be allowed to fight it out . The state of Oregon should be ordered to stay out of it , and should be severely sanctioned for its misconduct …

.. the Congressional subpoena is still pending . After that , AG Holder was cited for contempt for a second time . Also , the House brought suit in the US District Court to enforce the committee subpoena . At least as of now , there has been no news notice of the court filing …

.. Judge Bates [by the way , a Bush 43 appointee] has ruled that the Holder Department of Injustice and the ObamaCrap Administration has to produce what is known as a ” Vaughn Index . ” A Vaughn Index shows the identity and short form of the content of documents that are being withheld under a claim of privilege . With the court order , especially with the F.O.I.A. case , the Judge has determined , within limits , that the privilege claim is tetantively a ” crock of [bleep] . ” So , the ObamaCraps have a serious problem …

.. usually a Vaughn Index is dealt with under ” seal . ” So , it will still be a while before we know anything about what the ObamaCrap Administration is playing ” fast and cute ” about . I wonder what is so ” white hot ” that they felt that they had to withhold it …

.. if Judge Bates allows either the index or the docs out into the public domain , this could get real interesting , folks . Fast ! …

.. one problem was that the supposed debt was only about $2,700 . The amount of the tax refund was about $4,400 . So the government took the whole thing … the next was the stunt that the government did to lift the statute of limitations …

.. let me reproduce a segment of the blognews from the HotAir post , so that you understand …

When [Mary] Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them.

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it’s not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary’s money, rather than her surviving siblings’, is a mystery…

“It was a shock,” said Grice, 58. “What incenses me is the way they went about this. They gave me no notice, they can’t prove that I received any overpayment, and they use intimidation tactics, threatening to report this to the credit bureaus.”…

Social Security officials told Grice that six people — Grice, her four siblings and her father’s first wife, whom she never knew — had received benefits under her father’s account. The government doesn’t look into exactly who got the overpayment; the policy is to seek compensation from the oldest sibling and work down through the family until the debt is paid.

SSA insists that they did send notice — to a P.O. Box that Grice hasn’t owned for 35 years, even though they have her current address.

How can they demand restitution for a mistaken payment made in the late 1970s, let alone from someone who didn’t even receive it? Because: The farm bill that passed in 2011 lifted the 10-year statute of limitations on debts owed to the feds. Treasury has collected more than $400 million since then on very old obligations, many of them below the radar of public scrutiny because the amounts are often small enough, i.e. a few hundred dollars, that the targets find it’s cheaper to pay up than to fight. It’s a shakedown, based on the flawed assumption that a child not only must have benefited from the overpayment to his parent but that he/she received the entirety of the benefit, with little proof offered that the debt even exists. (One man who was forced to pay demanded a receipt from SSA affirming that his balance was now zero. The SSA clerk told him he’d put in the request but that the man shouldn’t expect to receive anything.) The only reason you’re hearing about Grice’s case, I think, is because they went after her for thousands, not hundreds, of dollars, which was enough of a hit to make her get a lawyer. Turns out that the feds had seized and then continued to hold her federal and state refunds, an amount greater than $4,400 — even though they were only demanding $2,996 from her to pay off her father’s debt. Lo and behold, once WaPo found out and started asking questions, the $1,400 excess was promptly returned to her. Amazing how fast bureaucracy can move when someone looks behind the curtain.

The whole thing is Kafkaesque — opaque, oppressive, arbitrary, and sinister in its indifference to making sure the right person pays so long as someone does. After reading the story, it’s not obvious to me what’s stopping Treasury from demanding a payment from every taxpayer whose parents are dead. If the chief witnesses are gone and the feds don’t have to prove that a child actually received any benefits from overpayment, the only “check” on this process is SSA’s willingness to tell the truth about who owes them money and how much. You trust them, don’t you?

.. another cheap stunt is the change in the statute of limitations for old debts , and slipping it into he farm bill . That is a very serious legal problem for the government . It is also unconstitutional . What the gowas make a change in the law that was ” ex post facto . ” Basically , you have reinstated a debt that expired by the statute of limitations [in the 1980s , in their case] , and misused the law to reinstitute it …

.. It does not matter whether it is a criminal matter or a civil matter . Doing that action ” ex post facto ” is an unconstitutional act . So , they should challenge it , and have it struck down …

.. unless a massive screwup occurs , the GOP will control both Houses of Congress after the November elections …

.. [-] the House — I believe that the GOP will add seats . How many ? I am not sure on that one , yet . it is too early to tell . My best guess is around 8 to 10 to 12 seats . That would not be too bad , because that would boost the GOP majority to about 245 seats . A healthy and manageable majority , no doubt …

.. could it be more , yes . but I doubt it …

.. [-] the Senate — at the rate things are going , the GOP is going to have a healthy majority , of al least 52 seats . I am thinking that it could be much more . If this election is a wave , somewhat like 2010 , it will be the Senate races that are affected the most , and give the GOP pickups that no one would expect , like Oregon (which I expect) and Minnesota (which I do not)…

.. Obama is going to grant ” amnesty ” by executive action after the election before the new congress takes office . Yes , it does matter . I will tell you why …

.. he can legally relieve illegals of the criminal offense , being in the country illegally . POTUS can grant pardons , clemency , and reprieves . It is in the U.S. Constitution , and there is nothing that anyone can do about it …

.. however , he cannot administratively change the law to grant those illegals citizenship . He may want to , and may even try to do so . I do not believe that he has the legal authority to change the immigration law . No president does . It is covered by separation of powers , among other things . He may well still try , though . That is where the change in Congress matters …

.. if and when he does , he will trigger impeachment proceedings . He will also just about cook the DemoCraps ‘ goose in 2016 . Back to that some other time . The House Judiciary Committee can conduct an impeachment inquiry during the current congress during the lame duck session . Committee proceedings can continue . Especially if he does a jackhole stunt like this . I half expect him to try to do so , especially now .

.. In addition , it would go to the D.C. Appeals Court , which , unfortunately , has been stacked with his cronies . However , the U.S. Supreme Court has not . The Conservatives would not stand for this abuse of power . Neither would Anthony Kennedy . Neither I believe would Steven Breyer . I doubt the liberals would , either , but given the polarization , who knows . Obama ‘ s admin action will be struck down …

.. Rememer , he can relieve illegals of the criminal act . He can also stop deportations . That one would create a huge uproar , all by itself . However , he cannot change immigration law , all by himself , as much as he would like to do so . Even if he would try , his act would be struck down at lightening speed by the courts . They would not dilly – dally around , taking months . They would take maybe a few weeks , at most …

.. Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt has found a rather rich but novel way to hold the government to the letter of the law , and block the ” sue and settle ” antics that have been going on for years . It has gotten rampant under the ObamaCraps , where the ” sue and settles ” have gotten out of hand …

.. under the Administrative Procedures Act , these dummies are circumventing all sorts of rules and authority . This type of authority is stuff that the agencies do not have , especially the E.P.A. . The E.P.A. should know better . The ecosocialist groupies could care less . Well , it is about time that somebody calls them on it …

.. steps that the state and local government have taken are a prat of the protocol . The ecoweenies have a habit of forgetting that . It is time that the judiciary call them on the carpet for it …